Electronic commerce conducted over a network such as the Internet has become popular as a result of advances in computer and network technologies. As with other common transactions, a contract is established in the electronic commerce conducted over a network as a result of an offer being made and then accepted. Economic activities such as business transactions are conducted based on this contract system. Communication over a network is performed by exchanging electronic data, and the offer and its acceptance are likewise conducted by exchanging electronic data. More specifically, electronic (digital) messages exchanged over a network are used to express the offer and acceptance on which a transaction is premised.
Invasion of privacy resulting from leaking, stealing, tampering with, or illegally selling personal information about the parties to a transaction is a particular concern for conducting electronic commerce over a network. It is therefore desired that some means for compensating for such invasion of privacy through insurance is provided. The electronic commerce system taught in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 2000-207453 is one example of a system providing such means. This electronic commerce system is structured to use insurance premiums to compensate for a loss incurred as a result of an invasion of privacy in conjunction with an electronic commerce transaction when a party involved in the transaction conducted over an electronic network or a related party has an insurance contract with an insurance company.
Various risks other than losses from the invasion of privacy (personal information) are also present in a networked environment. Examples of such risks include loss or damage resulting from lack of mutual understanding between parties, and loss or damage resulting from computer viruses.
Lack of mutual understanding between parties could occur in the following cases. One example is loss of data such as when a message sent by one party does not reach the other party. When messages are exchanged as electronic data, a natural person is unable to make an expression of intention directly, and the expression of intention must first be converted to electronic data which is then sent. In other words, a computer system or other such data processing device is required as a means for expressing intent. When expressing an intention by such means, there is a danger of operating the computer system so that the opposite of the user's true intention is expressed. There are also cases in which a breakdown of the computer system or network prevents the intention being expressed even though an attempt has been made. Due to such reasons, a problem of losses or damages would occur to one or both of parties to the transaction, which might not occur if messages were conveyed correctly.
Also, a wide variety of computer viruses are present on the network, and there is an obvious risk of attacks by such viruses. Losses resulting from interference with transactions by the computer viruses may occur.
The likelihood of losses and damages being incurred, and the value of those losses, will continue to increase as transactions conducted with computers and networks become more sophisticated and complex, and as the number and value of the transactions increase. As such losses occur, the burden of compensating for those losses may become excessive for the parties to the transaction. Such losses and damages could therefore easily become an obstacle to the sound development of commercial transactions conducted over computer networks. There is therefore a growing need for insurance to compensate for such losses and damages.
The electronic commerce system having an insurance function disclosed in the cited Publication could also cope with risks other than the invasion of privacy. However, if risks resulting from interference with the exchange of messages as part of a transaction are to be insured, it is necessary to accurately determine what transactions and communications were actually conducted over the network. More specifically, it is necessary to monitor and record the content of all network communications without fail. The electronic commerce system cited above, however, has no means for monitoring the communicated data. It is also necessary to prevent the recorded transaction content from being tampered with in order to assure the accuracy of the recorded content.